Background

Lana Del Rey was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant in New York City on June 21, 1985, to Robert England Grant, Jr., a Grey Group copywriter turned entrepreneur, and Patricia Ann "Pat" (née Hill), a former Grey account executive turned high school teacher. She has one younger sister, Caroline Grant, and one brother, Charlie. Her paternal grandfather, Robert England Grant, Sr. was a Kidder, Peabody & Co. investment banker, a vice president for Plough, Inc, and Textron, and venture capitalist.

Education

As a teenager in the small community of Lake Placid, Del Rey started drinking heavily. She'd attended Catholic school, but her parents sent her to Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut, because of her drinking.

Boarding school wasn't a complete cure, but by the age of 18 Del Rey was sober. Instead of attending college right away, she went to live with her aunt and uncle on Long Island; her uncle taught her to play guitar. Though Del Rey soon enrolled at Fordham University in the Bronx, where she studied philosophy, music became her true focus.

Career

Del Rey first performed under her real name of Lizzy Grant but found fame as Lana Del Rey in 2011 with a homemade music video for the song "Video Games." After "Video Games" became a viral hit, Del Rey was criticized for a lack of authenticity; she's also been called out for songs that sometimes feature female submissiveness and self-destruction. She has an extensive fanbase and has sold millions of albums, with 2014's Ultraviolence and 2017's Lust for Life both landing at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Del Rey's first major-label album was Born to Die, which came out in 2012. Though critics didn't embrace the album, it reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, sold more than 7 million copies worldwide and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. 2012 also saw the release of the Grammy-nominated EP Paradise, which contained the songs "Ride" and "Cola."

Del Rey's Ultraviolence (2014), featured atmospheric ballads like "Pretty When You Cry," "Sad Girl" and "West Coast," and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It's also been certified platinum. Before its release, Del Rey redid the completed album with producer Dan Auerbach, using single takes and cheap microphones instead of professional equipment.

2015 saw the arrival of the dark, critically praised Honeymoon. Del Rey has described the album as "a tribute to Los Angeles" (she moved to California in 2012, and says it's a place where she's found more musical collaborators than in New York). It reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and landed at No. 1 in countries like Australia and Ireland.

In 2017 Del Rey released Lust for Life. Though there are still dark tunes on the album, songs like "Love" gave it a more upbeat tone than earlier Del Rey projects, while tracks like "Coachella - Woodstock in My Mind" take the day's politics into account. It's also the first Del Rey album with guest artists, who include The Weeknd on "Lust for Life," Stevie Nicks on "Beautiful People Beautiful Problems" and Sean Ono Lennon on "Tomorrow Never Came." The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Before Del Rey adopted the professional moniker of Lana Del Rey, she made an album titled Lana Del Ray AKA Lizzy Grant (spelling Ray with an "a," not an "e"). It came out in 2010, but the digital release was only available for a couple of months.

Del Rey's work isn't made up of numerous radio hits, but she's created songs and videos that have received more than a billion views on YouTube. Her aesthetic often pairs American iconography with darker perspectives.

The viral hit "Video Games" mixed vintage footage, old cartoons, Hollywood imagery, an unsteady Paz de la Huerta outside the Chateau Marmont and shots of Del Rey herself. "Blue Jeans," which came out after "Video Games," was another popular DIY video.

The video for "Born to Die" was a much more elaborate affair. It included two tigers and evoked Rebel Without a Cause with its car wreck ending. For the "National Anthem" video, Del Rey portrayed both Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Marilyn Monroe, alongside rapper A$AP Rocky's John F. Kennedy.

Achievements

• 

  Since her debut, Del Rey has been credited as popularizing the sadcore genre for mainstream audiences. Del Rey has been credited as an influence by a number of artists including Billie Eilish, Finneas, Kevin Abstract, Au/Ra, Fifth Harmony, Lauren Jauregui, Lauren Aquilina, FLETCHER, Grace Mitchell.
  
  Del Rey has received four Grammy Award nominations. Lust for Life was nominated as Best Pop Vocal Album. Del Rey collaborated on a song for The Weeknd's Beauty Behind The Madness, which was given a Grammy nod for Album of the Year. Del Rey's Paradise EP was nominated as Best Pop Vocal Album, while her song "Young And Beautiful" for the movie The Great Gatsby (2013) received a nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
  
  

Works

More photos

• music

  • Born To Die 2012
  • Ultraviolence 2017
  • Honeymoon 2015
  • Lust For Life 2017

Religion

Lana Del Rey is a devoted Christian. When asked by Complex magazine why she often sites Jesus in her music, the singer says, "I mean, being raised Catholic, it was just a way of life. Spirituality and religion were strong. I was in Catholic school until I was 13."

Politics

Lana Del Rey has hit out against US President Donald Trump, saying that woman feel ‘less safe’ and that he’s made it ‘uncomfortable’ to feel romantic about America.

“I definitely changed my visuals on my tour videos,” she said. “I’m not going to have the American flag waving while I’m singing ‘Born to Die.’ It’s not going to happen. I’d rather have static. It’s a transitional period, and I’m super aware of that. I think it would be inappropriate to be in France with an American flag.

Views

Del Rey's musical sound has been dubbed "Hollywood sadcore" by music critics. Her music has been repeatedly noted for its cinematic sound and its references to various aspects of pop culture, particularly that of the 1950s and 1960s Americana. Del Rey elaborated on this in an interview with Artistdirect, saying "I wasn't even born in the '50s but I feel like I was there."

With her own stylish bad-girl image, retro-soul influence, tendency to collaborate with rappers, the Amy Winehouse template deeply resembles Del Rey's. Both embrace darkness and criminal behavior, and try to spin the unsavory into something beautiful in their work. "I believe in Amy Winehouse," Del Rey said in an interview with Fashion. "I know she's not with us anymore but I believe she was who she was and in that way she got it right."

Having been labeled as anti-feminist multiple times in the past, Del Rey dismissed feminism in June 2014, telling The Fader: "For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept. I'm more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what's going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I'm like, God. I'm just not really that interested."

She also defended herself against the accusations of anti-feminism, saying "For me, a true feminist is someone who is a woman who does exactly what she wants. If my choice is to, I don't know, be with a lot of men, or if I enjoy a really physical relationship, I don't think that's necessarily being anti-feminist. For me, the argument of feminism never really should have come into the picture. Because I don't know too much about the history of feminism, and so I'm not really a relevant person to bring into the conversation. Everything I was writing was so autobiographical, it could really only be a personal analysis."

Quotations: "I have everything I want. I really can't think of any ambitions or things to strive for. I don't want to leave the house, I'm happy at home, I really am. I am."

"I've been living in New York for about seven years and a lot of the people that I started singing with don't sing any more, don't write any more. So the fact that I can still do that that's kind of a gift, that's what I sort of stay focused on."

"If you consider the definition of authenticity, it's saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic."

"Being human is difficult. Some people make it more difficult than others. I was one of those people."

"When I found somebody who I fell in love with, it made me feel different than I felt the rest of the day. It was electrifying. That's what inspired the 'Off to the Races' melodies. That's one of the times when you're feeling electrified by someone else and they make you happy to be alive."

"I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I’ve had and also the people I’ve had around me. I want to stay hopeful, even though I get scared about why we’re even alive at all."

"If all that I was actually going to be allowed to have by the media was money, loads of money, then fuck it … What I actually wanted was something quiet and simple: a writer's community and respect."

"There is a high fantasy element in the music, but I’m incredibly plugged into what’s going on politically, socially and pretty much in every way except pop-culturally. I’ve had a very real life, and there have been a lot of things that took a lot of strength and wherewithal to figure out… things I’m still figuring out. That’s probably why the music has such an element of escapism to it."

Personality

The stage name “Lana Del Rey” comes from American actress Lana Turner and a car Ford Del Rey. The name was thought by her managers. Lana Del Rey is one of the most divisive figures in pop music. Her sultry voice and polarizing old-school beauty, including her surgically plumped lips, have added to her celebrity factor and given the public something to talk about. Her authenticity has been a topic of discussion because Lana used to look different before she became famous as Lizzy Grant. It was the money and self-clarity what fulfilled Del Rey’s true artistic vision of herself, “I wanted a name I could shape the music towards, a name that sounded as beautiful as the music. I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba –Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside.”

Tony Simon, a producer who had worked with Del Rey in 2009, defended her against the public claims of inauthenticity and allegations that she was a product of her record label: "To be clear, all the detractors saying she's some made-up-by-the-machine pop star are full of shit. While it's impossible to keep the businesses' hands out the pop when creating a pop star, the roots of where this all comes from are firmly inside of Lizzy Grant."

Physical Characteristics: Del Rey possesses an expansive contralto vocal range, which spans three-plus octaves and has been described as captivating and highly emotive, ranging from high notes in a girlish timbre to jazzy ornaments in her lower gesture with great ease. Following the release of Ultraviolence, which was recorded live in single takes and lacking Pro Tools vocal editing, critics fell into favor with Del Rey's vocal ability, praising her large range, increased vocal confidence, and uniquely emotive delivery. When recording in the studio Del Rey is known for vocal multi-layering, which, as it has been noted, is difficult for her to replicate within a live setting, especially with the lack of backing singers to fill out the original vocal style. Stage fright has also been noted as a major contribution to Del Rey's struggles with live performances. However, journalists noted in 2014 that her live performances had increased exponentially in confidence. Billboard deemed the Coachella debut of "West Coast" to be a "star-making performance" and lauded the singer's vocal abilities. Contemporary music critics have called her voice "smoky", "gravelly", and reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe. Upon the 2015 release of Honeymoon, her voice was compared by Los Angeles Times critic Mikael Wood to those of Julee Cruise and Eartha Kitt.

Build - slim.

Height - 5 ft 6½ in or 169 cm.

Weight - 61 kg or 134.5 pounds.

Del Rey has naturally “blonde” hair. But, she likes to dye them to darker shades.

Quotes from others about the person

• Lana's friend and sometime mentor Princess Superstar had this to say: "I've never understood this controversy about whether she’s real or fake. All artists have a persona. She's not put together by some company. These are her songs, her melodies, her singing - she's always had this Sixties aesthetic."

Interests

• Favourite film directors: David Lynch, Federico Fellini.
  
  Favourite color: pink.

• Writers

  Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg

• Artists

  Mark Ryden, Pablo Picasso

• Sport & Clubs

  Liverpool FC

• Athletes

  Luis Suárez

• Music & Bands

  Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Hope Sandoval, Father John Misty, Antony and the Johnsons, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Julie London, Bobby Vinton, The Crystals, Miles Davis, The Shangri-Las, Janis Joplin, Axl Rose, The Eagles, Lou Reed, Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen

Connections

Del Rey dated Scottish musician Barrie-James O’Neill for three years and was romantically linked to rapper G-Eazy.

Father:

Robert England Grant

Mother:

Patricia Ann "Pat" Grant

Sister:

Caroline Grant

Caroline H. "Chuck" Grant is a professional photographer based in Los Angeles and New York City. She has done many photoshoots with Del Rey to promote Kill Kill, Lana Del Ray, Born to Die, Paradise, Ultraviolence, Honeymoon, Lust for Life, and Norman Fucking Rockwell, as well as various other photoshoots.

Brother:

Charlie Hill-Grant

Charles "Charlie" Hill-Grant (born March 3, 1993, in Lake Placid, New York), is the younger brother of American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey and photographer Chuck Grant, and the son of Patricia Hill-Grant and Robert Grant.

producer:

Tony Simon

Tony Simon is a producer who had worked with Del Rey in 2009.

producer:

Rick Nowels

Rick Nowels is a co-writer (and co-producer) with Lana Del Rey on "Summertime Sadness."

Friend:

The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye)

The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey have been friends for a long time and he admits that they have both inspired each other. He once said, "She is the girl in my music, and I am the guy in her music."

References

• Lana Del Rey - From alcoholic to superstar
• Lana Del Rey
• Complex Magazine (August/September 2014) Lana Del Rey Cover
• L'Officiel USA Magazine (February/March, 2018) Lana Del Rey Cover
• Lana Del Rey Official Website